Soot Balls, Charge!
by Snow Mouse
Summary: HakuChihiro. When Haku is set free from the enslavement of Yubaba, he begins his search for Chihiro with the help of the lovable soot balls!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I no own.

I keep getting stuck on my fics! Its sooo aggravating!

I haven't watched the movie in months, but I wanted to do this cuz nobody was updating their Spirited Away fics... well not a lot of people...

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**Chapter 1**

Footsteps echoed in the dull, carpeted hall. A boy stomped up to the highest room in the bathhouse. His face was set in grim determination. He was going to be set free.

_Knock Knock Knock_ "Come in." Came a soft, scratchy voice. The 12 year old walked into a dimly lit room and stood in front an old woman who was examining her riches.

"Yubaba." he stated respectfully and bowed.

"Yes Haku?" the sorceress asked looking up from her gems set in front of her.

"I have come to be set free. I feel I have served my time here." he replied stonily.

"Ah, but you cannot unless you know your name. It is in the contract. You should know that." a soft chuckle arose from the witch.

"And I do," he smirked, "my name is the Kohaku River."

She gasped. "But, but" Yubaba stuttered and cleared her throat.

An icy glare was sent to the young apprentice, "Yes, but now, if you leave, there will still be a big fine that Sen- I mean Chihiro will have to pay up. I'm sure you wouldn't want that. I was going to shrug it off and let you pay for her by continuing your job, but if you would like to be set free then I may have to bring Chihiro back..." she trailed off.

The dragon's eyes widened, "You can't do that." he exclaimed taking a step forwards.

"Can I? I believe it is possible. Now you don't want your precious Chihiro to be trapped here again, do you?"

He shook his head.

"Then you must work for five more years as Kamaji's assistant working in the boilers. The bathhouse seems to be getting popular thanks to your pitiful girlfriend. So, do we have a deal?" a sly grin appeared on the woman's face.

He glared and decided to ignore the insult directed to Chihiro, "Three years."

"Four years." she compromised.

"Okay, I agree to your terms, Yubaba." another contract appeared in front of Kohaku. He scowled and read through it and, confirming it safe, signed it."

"Here are your new clothes and a note telling Kamaji about our deal. You will start tomorrow," she barked sitting down and returning to her jewels still lying on her desk.

Haku nodded and bowed, exiting the room.

The new boiler assistant made a face, "I can't believe I just did that." he mumbled.

-----

Once Kohaku was out of hearing range, Yubaba let out a laugh. "The fool doesn't even know that he only needed to work for two years in order to pay off the debt."

And with that, the witch continued shuffling though her large sum of money.

-----

Haku walked down to his room (The movie never said if he had one...) and packed his few possessions. Since he didn't currently have a job, Kohaku decided to catch up on his much needed sleep.

Morning met a groggy preteen. Haku rubbed his eyes and looked around. Yesterday's events suddenly caught up with him. The young dragon groaned wanting nothing more then to lie back down and cover himself with the blankets.

He forced himself up and got ready for a tiring day.

After a nice breakfast, Haku trudged down to the boiler room.

"Haku!" Kamaji exclaimed as soon as he saw the sleepy boy, "What are you doing down here?"

Kohaku gave the boiler man the note from Yubaba.

"Ah, so you're working for me now? Okay, now lets get you started. Your new room is over there. Just dump your stuff in it and I'll show you what to do."

_Three years and 11 months later_

"Very good, Haku." Kamaji praised.

Kohaku grinned wiping sweat off his brow, "Thanks Kamaji. And I only have one more month left until I can see Chihiro again." he said wistfully.

Kamaji laughed, "Be sure to tell her I said 'Hi' okay?"

Haku smiled and finished last task for the day.

The sliding door opened and Lin appeared holding their food. Kamaji took both bowls.

"Thanks Lin!" they said in unison gulping down their dinner. Lin made a face.

"Hey Kamaji, the yesterday's bowls?" Lin asked raising an eyebrow.

The empty bowls flew through the air powered by the boiler man's stretchable arm.

Lin took them, "Hey Haku, isn't it a month until you can meet Chihiro again?"

Haku brightened, "Yea just one more month."

Lin smiled gently, "Can you tell her I said I missed her?"

"Sure." Kohaku said.

"Thanks! Oh and here's the soot ball's food. Bye guys!" Lin crawled out of the room and shut the door.

Haku finished his meal and started to feed the soot balls.

"I'll tell Chihiro you guys said 'Hi' also, okay?" he said to them. The soot balls squealed and tackled Haku.

He laughed, "Bye Kamaji, soot balls!" As he retreated to his room.

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I think this is a little bit boring. And I don't even know what the plots gonna be...Review! But I may delete this... 


	2. Chapter 2

I'm soooo sorry for not updating. My family went on vacation for a week and I couldn't work on this. SORRY!

Oh, I'm going to use the US currency since that's where I live. If I ever need to use it...

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**Chapter 2**

"Today's the day! I've been waiting for this moment for... a long time. Just hope I don't screw it up." Haku took a deep breath and started to walk to Yubaba's office._ Don't mess up don't mess up don't mess up..._ he chanted in his mind.

-----

"Mama?" Boh, the giant toddler, asked innocently, appearing in the doorway.

"Yes my sweet?" she cooed back glancing at her now grown baby. "It's been 4 years since you sent Haku to work in the boilers. Don't you think you should set him free now?" Boh said seriously.

"He's right." came a voice from the door. Haku strolled in, "It has been 4 years so I'm free. Right?" he asked glaring.

"Yes you're free." the answer came. "It's really a shame. You can't imagine how hard it is to imprison a _dragon_, of all things, to work as a slave in a bathhouse."

"Blah blah blah..." Haku muttered.

Suddenly Boh interrupted. "Mama, didn't you say he only needed to stay for 2 years to pay off the debt? He stayed 2 extra years for nothing! I think you should give Haku something else." the witch growled silently at the baby as Haku turned to look at her.

"You mean I worked for 2 extra years for FREE?" he stomped towards the cowering sorceress. "I think you have to pay me for my efforts. Don't you?"

"Yes yes of course." she told him sweetly and dumped a large bag of diamonds in front of the raging dragon. "There you go, half a million dollars right there for you to waste.

Haku glowered at the last comment, but took the money and left. After all, Yubaba was known for her greedy nature, so it was hard for anyone to receive money from her.

Yubaba turned to the troublesome Boh, "Okay sweetie now its time for your nap! Go to bed."

-----

Haku blinked. Yubaba just let him free without any other contracts and a lot of money? _Maybe she's coming down with a fever... _he thought to himself.

Oh well, no use complaining! He was free! Now all he had to do was keep up his promise and find Chihiro... Some quest that'll be.

He sighed and started walking the familiar path down to his room.

"Hey Kamaji. Yubaba set me free," he told the boiler man.

"Congrats! You don't seem too happy about it. What's wrong?" Kamaji asked concerned.

"Oh it's nothing. I just don't know where to find Chihiro, or to even start looking." he looked down.

"Hey Haku, I heard you've been set free! Your so lucky." Rin said appearing from the sliding door, "But did I hear you say that you didn't know where to start looking for Chihiro?" Haku nodded.

"Well that shouldn't be a problem. There aren't a lot of human towns around here, so if you just enroll in the closest town's school it will be easy to find her. The only problem is that you'd be in different grades and you don't know anything..." Rin thought aloud.

"Hey! I know more then you do at least!" the dragon protested. "Anyways, I worry about the different grades thing later. I'm gonna start packing."

"Squeak!" the three soot balls started rushing after him.

"Hi, do you three want to come too?" the little soot balls nodded. "Alright, but first let me ask for permission. Kamaji, can I take these three to help me find Chihiro?"

"Sure. You're bringing Squeak, Squeal, and Squish? Good choice. They are also known as the 'Soot Trio' in their colony. You're going to have a pretty rough time with those soot balls." Kamaji looked over at the 4 and nodded.

"You named them." Haku sweat dropped. "Okay c'mon. I'll have to buy a backpack or something along the way, though."

Haku walked out of the main boiler room and into his own room. He swiftly packed his clothes and several other items and ran back out.

"Well I'm going! Bye Kamaji, Rin. I hope I can see you again." 6 arms quickly engulfed Haku.

"Until we meet again, young friend."

"Yea see you around." Rin smiled waving as Haku changed form and flew away.

-----

_Okay, lets see... I need to rent a place to stay, get food, and pay for tuition. _Haku mused._ Now that's gonna be a problem._ _I'll have to find a part-time job. But first, to the town._

* * *

This is not my day. First I try to find the site where I got my info for this fic, but get distracted! Then when I try to print the thing that distracted me, the printer runs out of ink and the computer locks down. I couldn't remember the password, so I had to shut it down, wait for it to reload, and this chapter wasn't saved so I had to rewrite it! Not to mention the 'k' key is partially broken so I have to press down hard for it to work. 

You didn't need to know that... I was just venting.

This was sooo boring...

-Takes a deep breath- Okay please review!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Haku was not a happy dragon. In fact, he was far from happy, he was furious. Everyone he met spoke to him like a normal 16 year old human child. If he wanted to rent an apartment, they would tell him to go home. If he wanted to enroll into the public school, they would ask him to tell his parents to sign him up. It was making him frustrated.

Inwardly, he told himself to calm down and that this was for a good cause. If he succeeded on this quest, he might be reunited with Chihiro.

A finger tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around, and looked at the old woman who had tapped him. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I was just thinking… aren't you a little young to be walking out here alone, asking for an apartment?"

The boy bristled. "I happen to be 16! That should be old enough to be walking outside, shouldn't it?" Usually Haku would be kinder to the elderly, but he usually wasn't on the brink of punching someone was he?

"I apologize. But may I ask where your parents are? I mean, who in their right minds would allow a young boy such as yourself to rent an apartment?" The woman was a nosy one, Haku noted, and he would ignore the 'young' comment this time. He had no time for trivial matters such as speaking to an ancient gossiper who asked relentless questions that held no relevance to her own life.

"My parents are dead." The dragon ground out, "Shouldn't you be somewhere?" Like anywhere but here? He added in his mind.

"No, I don't have anywhere to go. Besides, I enjoy talking to you. So, are you new here?"

Haku growled. She was doing this on purpose, he knew it. "Yes, I am a newcomer here. Do you know how to get me into the nearest public school? I'm afraid I cannot let my education take more time off then necessary." He forced a smile. He would sleep in a tree if needed, after all, he was a river spirit, and used to such conditions.

"Oh! I think I can be of help! How about I enroll you into the local school under my name? If they ask questions, I'll tell them that I recently adopted you. Although I don't think they should ask too many questions. People these days don't care as much as they use to. In the old days…" At that point, Kohaku stopped listening. So, the old hag did have a purpose. Maybe he shouldn't be so rude anymore. She _was_ helping him after all.

"Thank you so much. But I do not understand why you would do such a thing for an orphan like me." He gave her a charming smile, hoping to make up for all the times he had been rude to her.

"It's no problem at all. How about we meet at the park just south of here? At 12:00, I'll come to the big fountain of the dragon. It's hard to miss, even for a novice like yourself." Haku agreed and began to walk away. Although the woman was still babbling to herself,

"Bye." There. Now he spared himself the agony of listening to his conscientious' nagging about being rude and just leaving without a proper goodbye.

The dragon began to walk south. He would stay in the park the old woman mentioned until tomorrow. As for school, as soon as she signed him up he would have to find a place to stay, incase they were assigned a school project and had to meet at his 'house'. He was too 'young' to stay in an apartment by himself, but perhaps… maybe he could get the old woman he had met earlier to 'adopt' him, even if he wouldn't be staying there permanently.

That may do. Haku stopped walking and looked up at the branches of the various trees all gathered in a small clump. This must be the park she was talking about, Kohaku mused to himself. Not much of a park, just a few hundred trees planted so the humans could pretend they still cared about nature and their environment.

He found a large, old cherry tree and silently asked to spend the night in his branches. The tree was astounded. Apparently, all the plants nearby thought the Kohaku River had been taken over by concrete, never to be seen again. So Haku began telling his story to the aged plant (with the help of Squeak, Squeal, and Squish), who would then tell the tale to his friends, and they too would spread the tale, which would soon become a legend among the plant-life.

The legend of the Kohaku River and a simple human girl, Chihiro. It was called, Spirited Away.


End file.
